Please Select An Option From the
Following Menu...The SEIU convention is under way in Puerto Rico. They could hardly
have picked a better venue. Their healthcare honcho Dennis Rivera has been
working in collusion with the Commonwealth government to bust the militant
Puerto Rican Federation of Teachers--and make their 43,000 members Purple. Last
week the teachers fighting to save their union were in New York for a solidarity
press conference organized by labor supporters, including the New York State
Nurses Association and California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing
Committee.

Andy Stern is asking the delegates to give even more
centralized power to national councils that determine contract bargaining
objectives and who gets organized. The few existing restraints on top down
disciplining of dissident local leaders, and dissolving troublemaker locals in
to bigger megabodies, would also be loosened

At one time, SEIU used to give the monetary equivalent
of an affiliation fee to the Labor Party and LP gatherings were sometimes hosted
at the union’s Washington headquarters. That token support was terminated some
time ago. The first major union bureaucrat to endorse Obama, Stern proposes to
mobilize 100,000 members in support of his campaign for the White House,
including making ten million phone calls. Chairman Andy is prepared to spend
another fifty million dollars to support the legislative goals of an Obama
administration during its first one hundred days in office.

But the most bizarre change being offered is
replacement of traditional steward and local officer roles in dealing with
member questions and complaints with–Call Centers. First you should probably
check out the FAQs. If still stumped dial the toll free number and select an
appropriate option from the menu.

Perhaps nothing else better signifies the degeneration
of business unionism than this imitation of a frustrating corporate institution
masquerading as “customer service.” It is the polar opposite of adversarial,
member-driven unionism, such as I was trained in in the UE.

When I was first elected a steward in a UE shop thirty
some years ago it was made clear that the steward was key to what was a
self-service union. The power of the members was at the point of production so
that’s where you tried to take care of problems. The foremen came to learn that
the organized workers controlled the flow of work. Like Pavlov’s dog, the front
line bosses were conditioned to recognize that, if treated fairly, UE members
put out a fair day’s work but, if messed with, productivity seemed to plummet.

There was a steward for every foreman. A good steward,
backed by the members, articulated their demands and could usually get the boss
to listen to reason. Grievances that didn’t get settled there, that got kicked
upstairs to the mandarins of Human Resources, became much more difficult to
resolve.

On Stern’s watch SEIU has increasingly settled
contracts–and even “organizing” deals–on the highest levels. Stewards and local
officers have been used to communicate the results of these dealings, on a need
to know basis, to the dues paying ranks. Now the local officers, freed more than
ever from contact with members, can be put to work on organizing, or schlepping
for politicians--while faceless staffers with scripts in front of them field
phone calls from the ranks.

But this corporate approach to unionism is not going
unchallenged. The leaders of the 140,000 member United Healthcare Workers West
have brought a Platform for Change to the convention. It includes proposals for
increased union democracy, active participation by the ranks in contract and
organizing campaigns, and an appeal for unity with the rest of the labor
movement. And, these healthcare workers, unlike Stern, support single-payer
healthcare–a crucial demand for a rejuvenated labor movement.

We’ll be watching developments at
this convention closely. It’s the one remaining piece needed for our long
promised article on the Stern Gang.

Solo Act
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists reached a tentative
agreement this past week with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
Producers. Unlike eight previous contracts, AFTRA chose to bargain alone this
time instead of jointly with the Screen Actors Guild. AFTRA President Roberta
Reardon called this “a pragmatic approach to collective bargaining.”

It’s been reported that the AFTRA
deal is based on last year’s settlement with the Directors Guild. That’s true,
as far as it goes, but not the whole story. The Directors obtained their
contract in the midst of a militant strike by the Writers Guild, and it was
crafted to be the basis for a deal with the Writers too, bringing an end to that
walkout. Unlike most contracts today, that package did include some substantial
improvements for those two crafts–and now AFTRA as well.

SAG has a membership of 122,000.
AFTRA’s 70,000 members include many in radio not covered by the Hollywood deal.
There are 44,000 dual members of both unions.

The ranks of these unions are not
mainly rich and famous. Less than one percent are big names making millions.
About five percent of SAG’s membership work enough to qualify for health
insurance but earn less than 100,000 a year. The rest work irregularly; most
maintain “day jobs” to get by.

In recent years the situation for
journeymen actors looking for a middle class living standard has gotten worse,
especially in television. They’re being squeezed out of work by the so-called
“reality shows.”

There are fewer reruns, meaning
less residual payments. And the formula for residuals from highly profitable
home videos, such as DVDs, hasn’t changed since Beta Max was the top video
format.

SAG opened negotiations with an
emphasis on middle class objectives for their hard pressed ranks. They
especially want to upgrade the formula for home video residuals. AFTRA’s go it
alone “pragmatism,” which abandoned the home video fight, undercuts SAG’s
bargaining power.

They Just Came To Work
Here...
There has been an epidemic of crane accidents and fatalities over the past
couple of months.

* March–Crane collapse in midtown
Manhattan kills seven.

* March-- A section of a crane
collapsed in Miami killing two workers and smashing a home.

* April--A construction worker
died in Annapolis, Md after a section of a crane came loose as it was being
dismantled.

* May 23–A crane on the
construction site for a new coal fired power plant north of Kansas City toppled
sideways while being lowered after a wind test, killing one worker, injuring
three others.

* May 24–A Las Vegas worker was
crushed while oiling a crane.

* May 24–Three workers were
injured when a crane collapsed at the Black Thunder coal mine in Wyoming’s
Powder River basin.

* May 30–On the Upper East Side
of Manhattan two workers were killed when the cab became detached from a crane,
smashed in to an occupied building, and crashed more than twenty floors.

Of course, high rise construction
carries inherent dangers. But there is no justification for this kind of carnage
on the job. The Operating Engineers union has jurisdiction over construction
crane operators so I went to their web site to see what they had to say. What
they say is absolutely nothing. I did a site search for “crane safety” and found
only references to training manuals.

We all know we cannot rely on
today’s OSHA to keep our workplaces safe. Our unions have to be our first line
of defense. There is no more important union issue than protecting the lives of
workers on the job. It’s up to the labor movement to both be the voice for those
who can no longer speak and to be the defenders of those who deserve to live. As
our friend Anne Feeney sings--they just came to work here; they didn’t come to
die.

That’s all for this week.

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the WarAn Open, Democratic
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Cleveland, June 28-29 ClickHereFor Info